‘Madness’: Standoff in Northern Ireland town as protesters block first Orangemen march in decades

A tense standoff occurred in the Northern Ireland town of Portadown as protesters blocked a Protestant parade, known as an Orangemen march, through a Catholic section of the town. The march was the first to take this route in decades, following the lifting of an almost 30-year ban. According to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the ban had been in place on the contentious route.

The parade, authorised by the Parades Commission, was set to feature 35 Orangemen marching silently along Garvaghy Road without bands or supporters. However, as night fell, the Orangemen were still trying to carry out their march, but were blocked by police and several hundred residents, as reported by Gulf News.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, referred to as UK leaders by Gulf News, appealed for calm on all sides, stating that big gains had been made in Northern Ireland and that they didn't want to see things go backwards. The region had experienced three decades of conflict between largely Catholic, pro-Irish republicans and Protestant, pro-UK unionists, with the Garvaghy Road becoming a major flashpoint in the late 1990s.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Korea Times, The Age, Yonhap News, Gulf News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.